Jules Penales finished Bachelor of Science in Forestry at the University of the Philippines at Los Banos, College of Forestry. He earned substantive units in MA in Urban and Regional Planning at the UP Diliman - School of Urban and Regional Planning (UP-SURP) and also has legal background with 2 years of study for a Bachelor of Laws. He was previously engaged with a number of foreign-assisted special projects, namely: 1) As Project Development Officer of the Natural Resources Development Project - AusAid funded, focused on policy development in areas of land administration and community-based forestry programs; 2) as Senior Staff (Project Development Officer V and later as Community Development consultant) of the Low-Income Upland Communities Project funded by ADB, an integrated rural development project which addressed the issues of the upland concerns for environment and development; 3)as Sub-programme Manager, Integrated Environmental Management for Sustainable Development funded by UNDP, developed sustainable development applications in areas of environmental planning, land use planning, community-based sustainable development indicator systems, documentation of best community development pratices.

His engagement with ABS-CBN Foundation as Project Manager under Bantay Kalisan Programme included handling media-based environment cum livelihood projects such as: 1) Bantay Basura, 2) Bantay Kinabukasan, 3) Bantay Usok Project, 4) Sagip Kapamilya Project (disaster relief and rehabilitation project). He managed the Bantay Usok Project for 4 years in the areas of 1) policy advocacy, 2) IEC in support to the overall government clean air campaign, 3) good governance, 4) text usok management, 5) law enforcement (roadside apprehension), 6) monitoring of Private Emission Testing Centers, ambient air, and smokestack sampling with EMB.

"Ours is not a matter of choice but a right to have a clean air," he says. "Therefore, we need to close ranks in order to make greater impacts."

Contact:

Jules Penales
Coordinator
Partnership for Clean Air
Manila Observatory
Ateneo de Manila Campus
Loyola Heights, Quezon City
Tel: 426 5921 to 23
Fax: 426 0847
E-mail: pca@observatory.ph
Website: www.cleanairnet.org/philippines